Servant of Nature
by LusciousNesha
Summary: The nature of some beasts goes against nature, itself.  In fact, there are so many things in this world that were never meant to be a part of it.  That's where we come in.  I send back or send away whatever I can...  Bonnie Bennett
1. The Nature of Some Beasts

**A/N **This story is being written at the end of Season 4 of True Blood and towards the end of Season 3 of The Vampire Diaries, so if by the next time you watch one or the other, none of my stuff matches up, that's because I didn't know where either story was going, at the time.

I do not own or profit from True Blood, nor The Vampire Diaries, and all of these characters belong to whoever gets paid for them. Yet, I hope that my depiction is well-received...

_The nature of some beasts goes against nature, itself. In fact, there are so many things in this world that were never meant to be a part of it. That's where we come in. I send back or send away whatever I can. Then, there are those of us who are supposed to be servants of nature, but the powers given to us are abused and nature is unbalanced. That's where I come in too. Because, I've seen far too much and have had to lose more than I care to share, thanks to witches abusing power, and all of the madness has to stop, sometime._

**The Nature of Some Beasts**

She couldn't help but to laugh to herself at the fact that all of the others would be SO disappointed that she had already came and gone, after fixing the issue. There were plenty of witches who did what she did, and she wouldn't lie... Many of them were actually quite good at it, but none of them were like her. None of them had the power that she did, nor the heart to do whatever it took to use it and make things right in the world. Her phone rang and she simply answered the hands free as she climbed into her car.

"Bonnie Bennett, speaking."

"It's me," a familiar female voice told her, with a good little bit of country twang in it. "There's a situation that you need to take a look at in Bon Temps, Louisiana," the voice on the other line said.

"Are you there, or is this a referral?" She asked. It had been a little while since she saw this particular friend, but any time that she did, the "situation" was never good and last time had nearly been unmanageable.

"I am here, _and_ it is a referral," the female said.

"Your timing is impeccable. I just finished up with the assignment in Georgia. I'll head right to you and should be there in maybe twelve hours. It'll be daytime, so you'll have to tell me where I can rest my head, when I get in town. First thing's first... exactly what kind of situation is it that I'm walking into there? Since you're there, I'm going guess that there is a vampire element involved. Any other spooks that I should know about?"

She sighed and said, "Yeah... I'm not gon'lie to you, Bonnie. You're officially about to head into a shit-storm... a vampire/witch/family shit-storm."

"Start from the start, for me," Bonnie asked her caller...

This place was as bad, if not worse than Mystic Falls. She hated when she came into these types of little towns, but she knew the drill. Acts against nature liked to remain hidden, liked to take up residence and concentrate themselves in places which no one would care to look. Unmapped places that took getting lost several times, even after directions from three different people, to get to... she sighed. "I just finished up one of the sweetest tasks that I have had since I started this thing, and I somehow feel that being here is going to be quite terrible. What is this place?"

"It is a vampire haven crawling with all kinds of other supernatural undesirables. A real armpit, to be honest," the vampire said to her. "I should know. I was born here."

"So, there is a vampire that somehow has managed to get the ability to work with magic?" Bonnie asked, upon seeing Tara Thornton.

"Not just any vampire, one that I know you know," Tara answered back.

Bonnie's shoulders sank, for the first time in a long time, and she stated, "Abby. I don't even understand how this is possible. By the rules of nature, it can't happen and she can't get help from the spirits to even accomplish it. What kind of trouble has she caused?"  
>"A good damned deal of it, from what I see. Remember when we first were getting to know each other, the stories that I shared with you while Elijah had us locked up in that pit? Abby's into dark magic now and she's conjured up the spirit of a dark witch. The same one that made me not trust you when we first met, and with her spirit, she has come into contact with other dark witches and they don't really seem to give a damn about the rules of nature." They began to head towards Merlotte's, as they continued to talk. "From what I've observed, the vampires can hardly get near her, because of the dark magic she's using, and the witches here are all a bunch of failures. They don't have the power or the knowledge to deal with no shit like what Abby's got to dish out." She opened the door of the place and nudged her head towards the back, "The owner lets me use his office, when I come through." Bonnie simply followed her.<p>

"So, what we know is that she's got the power of dark magic and she's got the abilities of a vampire. I can attack the vampire in her and I can purify the darkness, but the two combined, and in her body, her powers may be amplified, because of her vampire's blood."

"If you can get her down with your vampire mind attacks, I should be able to hold on to her long enough for you to bind her with some kind of spell. But, the problem'll really be in catching up with her. She stays well hidden, and because of her newfound powers, all the heavyweight vampires are trying to get in good with her."

"In other words, she'll be highly guarded," Bonnie observed. "Between the two of us, I'm sure that we've enough contacts to storm the gates of a vampire/witch threshold..."

"I'm sure we do too, but I kinda like the only people that I can contact when I'm in a jam, and the way Abby's being... she's gon' kill anyone that threatens to take away that power from her."

"So, you call me up?" Bonnie teased.

Tara commented, "I dared to hope that maybe she's a better mom than mine, and that she'll at least give you a damned audience... in which instance, you stab her in the back. I understand if it's too much for you, but you're the one who always goes on about how it's your duty as a witch to fix shit like this. If ever there was a time that the problems in the world of the supernatural were your business, my guess is it'd be when it's your mamma causing them."

Bonnie sighed yet again and tossed her purse onto the desk as she sat down in the chair. She sure as hell couldn't argue with that logic.


	2. Out of the Coffin

**Mutual Respect**

Vampires' coming out of the coffin was one of the worse things that Bonnie could have ever imagined. She knew that there were areas in which the creatures lived in the light, but she had never expected that they all would be exposed and open. It made already overconfident vampires feel and act invincible and _that _made all of the good ones too afraid to let anyone know who they truly were... which in turn gave vampires like her best friend, Caroline and others a bad reputation.

As she presumed, Tara already had a hypothetical plan in mind. Generally, the young vampire thought on her feet, but she did try to at least have some type of plan of action already in mind. Bonnie's favorite thing about her was the fact that she came straight with everything, from the start of anything. Bonnie had lived through the pain of secrecy and lies, before and simply loved the fact that Tara never used kid gloves with her, or treated her like a magic card. Even before they were friends, there was mutual respect and Bonnie's stemmed from Tara's honesty (even when it was harsh and brutal.)

"And the problem with that little tidbit is that I'd most likely have to kill my mom," Bonnie observed out loud. "It's not that I feel like I owe her anything, after she left me, _twice_. But..."

"She's your mom and no matter how screwed up she is, you love her," Tara said, with understanding. Mutual respect aspect #2 – both had severely dysfunctional relationships with their mothers. "If we can get this thing rolling right, I should be able to take her, Bonnie. Of course, we could always call on that cute little slayer..."

"No, we can't _always _call on him." Tara pressed her lips together and Bonnie defended, "And it has little to do with the fact that he's my ex..."

"And cheated," Tara mumbled.

Bonnie ignored the mumble and continued, "And more to do with the fact that I don't like him wearing that ring. I don't know that he's actually keeping up with his herbs. After what happened to others in the past, I just wouldn't wish that on him."

"He's wearing it anyway when he goes-a-vampire-huntin,'" Tara said, cheerily and swung her fists back and forth. "I seem to remember him telling you to call him anytime you need him. If you can't do the deed, maybe you need him."

For a brief moment, Bonnie seemed to actually mull it over in her head, but Tara knew that it would not take her witch friend long to refute the idea. It didn't. "Come on, Tara – Surely you've got some vampire slayer contacts," Bonnie said, and quickly insisted, "Not that it should have to even come to that."

"I got a feeling, it will. I'm glad that you have some respect for the decent vampires of the world, but I can tell you straight that some of the bastards just gotta die. Abby's quickly become one that we might just have to kill." Tara said, then put her hands out suddenly, like she heard something. She zipped past Bonnie and flung the office door open.

"Jesus! Tara? ..." The owner of the bar said, with a start. His words drifted when he saw Bonnie and he straightened up, "I didn't even realize that you were here, much less that you had company." He made his way to Bonnie and held out his hand to shake hers, "Sam Merlotte."

The witch shook his hand and quickly withdrew her own with an amused but alarmed look on her face, "So, that's what a shapeshifter's energy feels like... I'm Bonnie Bennett."

"The witch," he said, then told her, "I guess that it's obvious Tara's spoken to each of us about the other. Let me know if I can help out with anything."

"Actually, you can. There's an infamous fairy girl in this towneHe that I want to make sure stays out of the business that Tara and I are up to together, here. She has too many vampire friends willing to sacrifice the lives of others, for her sake and I already know how such things turn out. I am not above shutting her down if she gets in the way of what nature would have me to do."

Now, Sam looked at Tara and asked her, "Does Sookie even know that you're around?"

"It's for the best that she doesn't," Bonnie mentioned. "In demand supernatural beings have a terrible burden in this world of unintentionally being the fall of everyone around them and the matter that I've come into town for is too personal and important for me to let something make it any more complicated than it already is."

Tara suggested to Sam, "You could team up with Alcide to see to it that she stays occupied or focused on anything besides what's going on at the old witch's mansion."

Sam smiled politely at Bonnie, took Tara's elbow and brought her a short distance away to whisper, "You're thinking of trying to do something about that witch vampire? If anyone is a supernatural being in demand, she is. This is dangerous, Tara."

"Life has always been dangerous for me, Sam. This is something that I have to help Bonnie take care of," Tara said. "She's helped me out, from the start, and has never let me down."

The two met in Mystic Falls, Virginia – a few years back. One of them was living there, struggling with the absurdity of loving a best friend who almost never seemed to help her with anything, and to be honest, was the source of most of her problems in life... the best friend and vampires, actually. Bonnie had been through enough heartache since meeting those creatures to last her a lifetime and vowed that she would not allow them to continuously haunt and taint her life.

She graduated from high school, and was off for college when she came across a new vampire in town, who was different than any other one that she had met (and she knew more of them than she wished to claim). This vampire was there, searching for someone. She had heard that there was a way to kill all living vampires, if only killing the original in that creature's bloodline. She wanted to destroy as many as she could, even down to herself.

Bonnie pitied her. The self hatred was clear, but the witch had a feeling that it was probably warranted, and later found out all about everything that had anything to do with her most recent years of plight was from either vampires, or other supernatural forces. But, the vampire was going to get herself killed if she really thought that she might stand a chance against any original...

See, Tara never had much to begin with – an absent father an abusive, alcoholic mother, a life-long crush on someone who couldn't care less about her heart, and a best friend who, though she loved her and meant well, seemed to frequently get her into situations that hurt her. Sookie would have gave her life for Tara, but certain vampires in love saw to it that no matter what the cost – no harm must be done to Sookie. That thought cracked Tara the hell up – because she knew Sookie her entire life and things didn't become unsafe for her best friend UNTIL she got mixed in with the vampires.

After that, Sookie's fate was sealed. She would never be able to escape the vampires – their hold, their obsession, their drama, their danger... and it affected Tara harder than anyone else. That was one common ground that Tara shared with Sam – both of the loved Sookie, in their own ways. But, while Sam had been in love with her, but now (thankfully) oved on – Tara had been the ride or die best friend, and gotten killed.

She threw herself in from of a shotgun blast meant for Sookie and fell, limp in her arms, head partially blown off. In stepped Pam, one of the nastiest vampires that they knew, and one with a vendetta against Sookie. Pam had the power to save Tara, just before it was too late. She snatched her away and made the change, rested in the coffin with her for the transition, fed her, made sure that she was fully vampire – then did everything to make sure that she never saw Sookie again.

Tara chuckled to herself. Aside from the fact that Pam was an evil bitch, she was Tara's maker and Tara was linked to her, sired to her. She couldn't break free of her, if she wanted to. She didn't really want to. She hated who she had become – this thing that she knew would be the fall of many innocents... but, at least now she had the power to become something strong enough to defeat them, or die trying.

Pam loved her, as her child – something she never expected when she made her out of anger and hatred against Sookie, but she allotted her freedom. She knew that no matter what, all she would have to do was call and Tara would come running to her side. That was a maker's perk. Aside from that – they were lovers. It happened often between maker and child of darkness. Pam ventured her existence, wanting to not have to frequently be reminded of the fact that the reason she made Tara was because her maker, Eric had disowned her, for Sookie's sake. _To hell with Sookie, anyway! _Looking at Tara reminded her of what she lost, so keeping her away, unless she needed her for companion ship or a quick rescue was convenient.

It also gave Tara time to set out to bring down vampires everywhere. Through a series of unfortunate events, Bonnie managed to save the young vampire's life and helped her to get out of town, unnoticed. Since then, they had an understanding and even developed something like a friendship, when they weren't involved in the business of ridding the world of the likes of evil.

"The vampire/witch is my mother, Mr. Merlotte," Bonnie interjected on Tara's behalf. It's because of my past relationship with an in demand supernatural that she was ever made into a monster, in the first place. That makes whatever she's doing in your town my business _and_ my responsibility. Fortunately, Tara is the type of friend that never leaves me stuck out." She sighed, "I could've used a friend like her in Mystic Falls." Bonnie hoisted her bag over her shoulder and said, "I'm all set for a stakeout and ready when you are."

Tara moved towards the door as Sam urgently commanded, "Be careful, Tara." She didn't respond as she and Bonnie left the place together, unnoticed. Bonnie was excellent at cloaking spells. If this Sookie was not going to know that Tara was in town, no one else could, either. This place was smaller than Mystic Falls and the people were not nearly as secretive.

"He's cute," Bonnie teased. Tara threw her a glare and she laughed, "After the way you picked on me about Jeremy, I don't get to repay you about your ex?"

"He ain't my ex. We slept together a few times and beyond that, we've been nothing but friends. He, like everyone else in the history of this town was in love with Sookie." Tara gave Bonnie a side glance and said, "You've got some serious deep brow action going."

"I'm thinking about Jamie. If this thing turns out badly, he'll be broken up." Jamie was a complicated issue for Bonnie, which meant that she had to leave him out of things and leave him behind. She cared about him, but in the capacity that Tara cared about watching children play innocently in the park. He was her connection to a once normal life. They each would never be like those children again – carefree and average. Some people/vampires... beings... just needed a sense of normalcy to remedy all the crazy shit that supernatural existence threw their way.

"That's life. He'll have to deal with it." Tara commented. Even though Sam was a shapeshifter, he didn't have superhuman strength nor was he invincible or immortal; so she put him and Jamie in the same basket. The "leave the out of it and if they whine, they'll have to just get over the shit" basket. She laughed to herself, again. Bonnie heard her, but didn't ask her about it. She could presume her associate's thoughts.

"I'm really gonna need you to wear a sun ring for this stakeout. Who knows how long we'll have to be in that car and when the sun comes up, I don't want you bursting into flames." Bonnie reached into her sack to dig for the ring she made, just for Tara – though Tara never kept it. Tara preferred not to pretend that her humanity had not been ripped away from her. She wore it, when needed for missions, then handed it back to the witch without further delay.

"I'll wear it as long as we're cloaked. The last thing that I need is any of the nasty vampires around here knowing that I have a way to survive in the sun. They'll come after me, which I can handle. But I'll lose my shit if something happens to you because of me."

"I can handle vampires, Tara."

"I know that. But, they never fight fair and they don't fight alone. If Eric or Bill, or worse the ridiculous alliance of both of them come after you..."

"It can't be any worse than going to war with the originals," Bonnie finished the sentence as she got into the passenger's side of her own car and tossed Tara the keys. "Besides, Elijah and I have come to an understanding, and what these vampires don't realize is that their authority comes from the originals. Bill Compton may be a celebrity and a royal, but that's only because the originals have allowed it."She grabbed Tara's hand and shoved the ring onto her finger. "I know that the real reason you don't want Eric to get involved is because of your maker. I'll do what I can to ake sure both of us don't have to lose someone important. K?"

Tara squeezed Bonnie's hand gently and gave her a half smile. Mutual understanding. Both of them had someone important to them who happened to be on the other side of war with nature.


	3. Stake Out

**Stake Out**

The spirits that Bonnie sensed in this town easily put all of her other experiences to shame. She had not thought about how tired she would be after finishing one mission, jumping right into another and hardly getting any sleep before meeting up with Tara... to sit in her car, doing surveillance. She could feel evil radiating from the house that Abby was sheltered inside of and she saw many hybrids on patrol outside of the building.

So, she supposed that during Klause's absence (as he had been bound and sealed away, much like his father, Micheal had), his followers were aligning themselves with another hybrid of sorts. How the hell did nature allow this to happen? There should have been no way to be a vampire and a witch at the same time, but with dark magic, things that never should have been sometimes were born. Hell, it was the story of the history of vampires. Her eyes fluttered a bit and she felt herself dozing off. But, within a few moments, she jumped awake and surprised that she could even sleep at a time like this.

"You've had a rough last few days. You can catch up on rest, if you need to. It certainly would do you no good if something happened and your ass is half conscious or dead tired," Tara complained, staring out of the window at the house.

"Girl, you know that I'll be fine. I'm shocked that I can even be at peace enough to sleep with all of the energy that I feel in Bon Temps," Bonnie admitted and bit her lip.

"Well, you know that you're safe, with me here. I'd never let anything happen to you, as long as I'm..." she almost said 'alive' but shivered at the fact that she knew that she was not and completed her thought, "with you."

"And as much as I appreciate that, you don't work for me, nor or you a pawn to me. You're a friend and I wouldn't ask you to sacrifice yourself for me. I've been that person before, and so have you." Bonnie yawned and reached for her glove compartment, knowing that she had some energy supplements in it; but, her car was hit by something, and it shook. "What the...?"

Tara said, "We've been spotted," as calmly as anything that she ever said.

"Damn it. Can you sense what it is? There's so much energy in this town that I won't be able to tell what's what unless I touch it." The car was hit again, hard.

"Tara said, "Right now, just bring it down and we'll figure out what the hell it is after you've exploded it's brain." Suddenly, a hairy fist punched through the top of the roof of the car and Bonnie gasped. "It's a hybrid in wolf form," Tara confirmed.

Bonnie reached her hand towards the creature and began to work her 'witchy juju' on it. They heard it howl in pain and its paw was retracted. Bonnie started the car up and said, "He'll call for reinforcements." Before she was able to finish the sentence, the car began being hit from several different sides and she lowered her head and raised both of her hands to mentally attack all of them.

Suddenly, Bonnie and Tara heard a loud POP and saw a hybrid crash into the windshield, dying – with its heart blown out of its chest. The sound was repeated several times until hybrids were running panicky from the vehicle. "There's a slayer involved," Tara observed as the monsters retreated. Bonnie's cell phone sounded and she looked at it, threw her head back against the seat and showed the phone to Tara. _You can thank me later – some time __**after**__ you explain to me why you didn't call on me for help. –Jeremy. _"Where the hell is he?" Tara asked, glancing around the area, mostly at the tops of buildings. (None of them looked high enough for that human to have an advantage on the hybrids.) But, then again – Jeremy was probably the best slayer that Tara had ever met.

Bonnie was busy calling him, now. He let her call go to his voicemail and she left a message, "Look – I don't know how much info you have on this particular situation, but call me as soon as you can. If you've been called in to terminate the vampire witch, please hold off. It's Abby." Her voice cracked, just a bit as she confessed to the mailbox.

"We're going to have to get the hell out of here," Bonnie complained. "This is shit, Tara. The fact that those hybrids came after us means that Abby's not only powerful enough to detect my concealing spell, but she's also powerful enough to penetrate it."

"There's something that I'm more bothered by, here. That's whether or not she realizes it's you out here. If she does... All bets are off, Bonnie. She'll have to be put down." Bonnie began driving back to her motel when her phone rang and she answered the hands free.

"Jeremy..."

"Where are you headed, now?" He asked, annoyed.

"I'm going to regroup. I know you weren't blindly firing, so you must have seen what the hell just happened to my car. It's bad enough that I've been detected, but now we're exposed in this vehicle, full of monster holes."

"Couldn't you just put up a barrier around it?" He asked.

Ignoring his question, she said, "I need to see you. We have to come together and touch base. I want to know who sent you and all of the info that you have on Abby's current situation."

"You wouldn't like it if I told you who sent me," he said in a mock warning tone.

"I didn't say I want to like it. I said I want to know."

"I'll get back to you on that."

"Jeremy..."

"Tell Tara I said hi." He hung up and Bonnie groaned.

"Did you ever explain to me why the two of you never made up?"

"We bring out the worse in each other."

"By always risking your lives for one another and neither wanting to admit it's done for love. I understand."

"I've knocked him out to keep him safe, when all he wanted to do was lend a hand and fight for what was right. He's rushed into an impossibly dangerous situation to keep me from overexerting myself to death. I grow him special herbs to keep that ring from making him crazy. He sneaks into my missions, obviously well informed and kills whoever attacks me."

"He still loves you," Tara said.

"I don't ever remember hearing him ever say that he did love me."

"You just told me that you heard him loud and clear. Look – some of us have a hard time expressing our feelings. He lost his parents, lost his sister's heart to vampires, lost every girl that he loved..."

"Actually, he threw one away," Bonnie commented.

"Thought you said he didn't love you," Tara teased. Bonnie simply frowned, but Tara continued, "This is what we know for certain: you didn't want to call him in, because you knew that this mission would be dangerous, but he came into a dangerous mission (probably to handle it in the exact opposite way that you're going to try to handle it) and he still saved you when he saw you being attacked." Bonnie stopped the car at the motel and pursed her lips together.

When Tara looked up, she saw Jeremy, leaning against the door of Bonnie's motel room. The two women got out of the car and the slayer, dressed in all black and looking damned fine, Tara thought to herself, despite their age difference, said, "You are like the slowest driving witch I have ever seen. You should ride a broom. In speaking of which – I've come to realize something about Harry Potter. The reason that they ride brooms is because witches and wizards can use the elements to draw power. They can control the wind... So, you could ride a broom, if you really wanted to."

Bonnie jerked Jeremy by the collar of his jacket and pulled him into the room, while Tara folded her arms and leaned against the door. _I think I'll wait until the customary pissing contest has run its course. _"Who sent you after my mother?" Bonnie asked.

"What makes you think that I was sent. Maybe I heard that she was able to tap into some of the most evil available and I decided that I couldn't sleep with it on my conscience."

"You didn't. Abby has hybrids at her disposal. What do you know about that?"

"I know that they aren't any of Tyler's. I'm guessing they're from the old regime. That's why I didn't have any qualms about taking them down."

"What does Tyler have to say about all of this?"

"Of course, he wants to keep peace between hybrids, vampires and werewolves, but not at the cost of humanity's genocide."

"Abby is not after the destruction of humans. If she wants to destroy anyone, I would presume it would be the vampires."

"You presume correct. But, do you know what happens when vampires are targeted? They have to scourge. They have to try not to be noticed and basically get back into the coffin. That makes their level of dangerousness to humans peak. Abby's getting into something that she will not be able to control. She has to be stopped."

"I can stop her," Bonnie said.

"I wish that I could believe that, Bon. I waited for you to make it into town and I watched you – to see what route you would take. I followed you to your stake out and I saw you get attacked by Abby's goons. She's not going to be susceptible to your power and she's not going to allow any emotion that she may have had once upon a time for her daughter affect her course of action."

"Jeremy..."

"Bonnie – I wasn't willing to watch you get yourself killed when we were together, and I'm not about to do it now. I wanted to believe that your mother is still inside of that monster, somewhere. The attack on you today proved to me that it was wishful thinking on both of our parts and I can't let you interfere and mess up what needs to be done. Neither can I let you get yourself killed trying to prevent it. You think nature wants something like her here?"

"Nature doesn't want _you _here either, Jeremy," Bonnie reminded him, with damp eyes.

"No, it doesn't," he said, "But, at least I'm trying to prove myself. Abby is trying to get revenge and going against everything pure to do it." The gentle tears began to fall down Bonnie's cheeks and for a moment, she could have sworn that she saw Jeremy wince at the sight of them. But, he cleared his throat, straightened his demeanor and handed her a towel from the top of the sink. "It's understandable that you love her, no matter what she's done to hurt you." (He sounded a little bitter, and Bonnie couldn't shake that his bitterness was directed towards her, not Abby) "But, just because you love somebody and you know what's best for them doesn't mean that you can always give that to them."

Bonnie wiped her face as he continued to talk, a touch more gingerly, now, "When you brought me back from the dead, you lost contact with some of nature's best source of power, power that you could have possibly used today for the work that you're doing. Don't get yourself into trouble with nature and the spirits for love again."

"Because we all know how well it turned out for me last time," she joked.

"Precisely," he snapped and snatched the towel from her hands as he turned red in the face. "So, I guess that I can trust you to stay away from this."

"Abby may never care about me or be a mother to me, but she is my mother. I am who I am because of her and I will do everything to protect her. I love her and to me, that means unconditionally. I risked allowing the originals to continue to exist in order to keep you from dying again _after _you broke my heart as a form of payment for me bringing you back to life. And if something happens today that endangers you, I'm going to ignore the fact that you told me to let you kill my mother and I'm going to try to protect you. That's how love works. You don't do it for yourself."

Jeremy balled his fists up at the fact that she had thrown all of these things in his face and stirred up some issues that he wished to God he could forget and move past, and he said through his teeth, "I know how love works, Bonnie."

"Good, then I trust you to know that none of your argument on Alaric's behalf will be taken into consideration."

"I am not here for anybody _but _you, Bonnie," he said, almost desperately. He threw the towel onto the sink and leaned against it. "Tyler asked me to come, because he'd caught wind of the hybrid involvement. Alaric asked me to come and told me every single detail that he knew of. I told both of them 'no.' I told them that I couldn't do to you the very thing that Damon did, the thing that I think truly marked the beginning of your separation from the gang, from Elena. I know that if you even eventually turned on Elena because of your love of Abby that you would never even glance my way again if I hurt her. I mean, you've just made it abundantly clear that you have no reason whatsoever to want me in your life..."

"You _are _in my life," she snarled.

"Because I force my way in!" He finally yelled. Tara chuckled outside and shook her head. She had been guessing that he would be the first to begin the screaming match, although she had presumed that it would begin sooner. He tried to lower his voice, but it sounded like yelling, with a lower volume. "I was stupid, Bonnie. Alaric has reminded me on multiple occasions that I messed up. I've apologized to you, asked you to forgive me, begged you to judge me based upon what I do now, not a mistake that I made as a teenage boy. You just confessed that even though you promised to do that, you still handle me like the boy that cheated on you in high school. You still don't trust me."

"The only reason that you wanted me to forgive you was because you discovered that Anna had found her mother on the other side and didn't have any reason to try to reach out to you anymore. Why would I want to continuously be the backup plan? I got sick of doing it for Elena, Damon and Stefan, and I'm not about to do it for you. I never ask you to show up and bail me out, and I never would. So, don't expect me to feel obligated to owe you anything. You may look at me like I'm beautiful today, but we both know that it's because some part of you thinks you just can't do any better."

"I know that I can't do any better. There is no one better, Bonnie..."

She fumed through her nostrils and said, "So, Alaric didn't send you. That means that he's either going to come himself, or he'll send someone else." Jeremy wiped his entire face with his palm in annoyance that she'd cut off their conversation, but nodded his head with her in agreement.

Tara knocked gently on the door and stepped inside, looking truly sad for Jeremy. "I don't think he'll come himself. I think that he's gonna try to contact someone whose already attached to the place." She handed her phone to Bonnie and Bonnie read the text. _Tara, I know that you love Bonnie and want to protect her. I do too. She doesn't understand the danger Abby poses. Please call me as soon as you can. Abby must be stopped, for all of our sakes. _


	4. Abby Bennett's Place

_Whether or not Alaric survives this current storyline on TVD, I am going to use his character. If he or Abby die before it's all over (shrugs), they're characters here._

**Abby Bennett's Place**

Tara stepped outside and called Alaric back, at Bonnie's request. "Do you know where I am, right now?" She asked him, obviously pissed off. "I am at a motel with Bonnie Bennett and Jeremy Gilbert, after having nearly been killed by Abby Bennett's hybrids, and while we're here trying to brainstorm, you have the nerve to try to contact me about helping your evil ass?"

"The enemy of my enemy is..."

"Gon' be the next one to go, soon as I finish with this enemy!" She hissed to complete the sentence.  
>"Come on, Tara. You want Abby Bennett dead and out of Bonnie's life just as much as I want her dead."<p>

"I want her dead because this bitch is a supernatural terrorist. You want her dead because you're worried that she'll be the death of you."

"Don't go in there, Tara. I know you think that you can get close enough to overpower her, but you're wrong. She's a necromancer. She can control you. That's how she controls the hybrids. That's why you won't see me in Bon Temps."

"Then what the hell did you call me for?" She asked.

"If you don't want Eric Northman and Bill Compton in your hair, you will hear me out." Her jaw tightened, but he knew that he had her attention. "Just keep Bonnie away from her mother long enough for Jeremy to kill her."

Tara took this time to move a little bit further away from the door so that the others wouldn't hear her ask, "So, you _did _send him?"

"I didn't have to send him. Jeremy hears Bonnie names and he automatically responds, and you just told me yourself that she almost got killed. Jeremy will never stand for that. If you stay out of his way, Jeremy will kill Abby, but you _have to _keep Bonnie out of it."

"You don't give a damn about Bonnie," Tara commented.

"On the contrary, Bonnie has always been one of my favorite people in the world and I'm partial to witches. But, she's important to Jer, and he's my family. I know that you love Bonnie. I'm not asking you to do something that will hurt her."

"Keeping her from saving her mom, if her mom can be saved will hurt her, nd quite frankly, I'm surprised that you thought I'd be willing to side with somebody else over her. Especially you. You're a vampire killer."

"You say that as though it's a bad thing, when you are one, too."

"Some vampires, even if they never should have been made deserve a chance to do things the right way. You kill any vampire that you come across."

"I didn't kill you," he said. Bonnie peaked out of the door and her eyes questioned Tara, who became silent when she saw her friend. "Are they around?" Alaric asked. Tara waved Bonnie away and the witch went back inside. "They gone?"

"I've seen a necromancer witch at work before. That bitch terrorized the town and killed my cousin's boyfriend. They hate vampires and they're reckless with their revenge, but I'm not going to assume any power over Bonnie. How she wants to handle this is her choice and I won't try to make her a victim that I have to protect. I respect her too much."

Alaric sighed and said, "Fine, Abby wants to awaken Klause."

"That's ridiculous. Klause is one of the main reasons she got turned," Tara argued.

"She wants to wake him so that she can control him, use him to destroy everything, and make him watch. In that process, you know that your circle of familiars will be touched by her reach out. Let Jeremy kill her. Keep Bonnie from screwing this up, like Sookie screwed things up for you so many times." Tears welled in Tara's eyes and she cussed him out hard and strong before hanging up in his face.

How dare he try to use Sookie to prompt her to betray Bonnie? She hated the fact that he had gone over to the other side so many times and that he had that twisted relationship with Esther. He knew things sometimes that his ass just shouldn't know. Even though he never said it, she had this suspicion that he knew that some part of her blamed Sookie for the fact that she was now a vampire. Because had Sookie never gotten involved with vampires, even though they were all over town, maybe this particular fate could have been avoided for her. She reentered the room, silently, shocked to see Bonnie laying on Jeremy's lap, with her head on his shoulder.

Jeremy noticed her and softly asked, "What did he say to you?" Now, Bonnie quickly sat up and moved herself away from the slayer, like Tara cared that she was obviously catering to her emotional side. Hell, they'd almost been killed tonight and this guy saved them.

"He said that Abby wants to awaken Klause and use him as her tool of revenge, plus make him suffer," Tara said and left out the part about stopping Bonnie from interfering. "He also told me that she's a necromancer."

Bonnie gasped and looked straight out at nothing. Jeremy's eyes moved from Tara to Bonnie as he wondered what was so bad about that. "She can summon people from the dead?" He asked, trying to get some bearing on it.

"And she can control the undead," Bonnie clarified. "She'll be able to gain control over any vampire that she wishes to."

"Including me," Tara commented.

"She'll never get near you," Bonnie promised and moved over to Tara to hold both of her hands. "Jeremy, we need to see if we can gain an audience with her."

"No, you need to stay away from her just as badly as Tara does," he debated.

The witch completely ignored him as she got on the phone and began talking softly to someone, "Hey... I have some business with Abby and well, it's complicated, but I'm hoping that maybe you still have her ear?"

Jeremy's jaw tightened and he told Tara, "I'm going to hit up the vending machine. Want an O neg?"

"I'll walk with you," she said. When the door shut, she told him, "Alaric wants me to keep Bonnie away from Abby. If I try to keep her from helping her mom... I just don't think that the answer is always to kill the alleged villain. We aren't the Salvatores..."

"Don't. I don't like to hear that name," Jeremy said. He climbed onto his bike and Tara looked confused. "Surely you don't think that I'm going to give Bonnie a chance to allow Jamie to contact Abby so that she can be prepared for me when I have the chance to reach her."

"You're going to attack her now, with no assistance?" Tara asked. "That's crazy," she said and climbed onto the bike, behind him.

"Bonnie will be pissed at you," he told her as he started the vehicle.

"Yeah, but she'll be safe. It's the kind of thing that she'd do for somebody she loves. Hurry before she realizes." With that, the motor vehicle sped towards the vampire witch's lair.

Abby sat silently on the side of Jamie as he and Bonnie talked on the phone. She could hear every word that Bonnie was saying, and cringed when Jamie gave her a horrified look at the news that hybrids had attacked her car. He eventually let Bonnie off of the phone and promised to call her back as soon as he had some news. He gave Abby an angry look and asked, "You attacked your own daughter?"

"I didn't know that she had come. I didn't think that anyone would actually try to use her against me. I thought surely they would realize that I would never let her anywhere near me."

"So, you just attack first and ask questions later?" He fussed.

"Jamie, I know that you and Bonnie have gotten close in the past few years, but please keep in mind that as long as I am like this and she is who she is, it's almost inevitable that we would have to face off... if I ever let her get close enough to face me. But, she's made her mistake in even calling you and asking about me..." Abby grimaced when she heard something in the distance. "And now Jeremy Gilbert is here."

Jamie frowned and tilted his head, "What makes you say that?"

"I hear his motorcycle. I heard it earlier, too. It was around the time of the attack. He's obviously the one that stopped the attack in Bonnie," Abby said and gauged Jamie to see his reaction. His jaw tightened. "Did you know that they would be here together?"

"I didn't even know that they still talked," he said, sadly. "But then again, she doesn't tell me about the witch business. She likes to compartmentalize her life and I'm in the safe compartment."

"Unless of course she needs to reach out to me," Abby said. She could hear the sounds of different supernatural guards being taken down, either by Jeremy's weapons, or by another with him. "There's a vampire with him," she said in a panic. "Alaric," she presumed and outstretched her arms as she began her chant to dominate the vampire with Jeremy. As they burst into the room, Abby pointed a hand at them and continued her chant, but Jeremy fired upon her.

With vampire speed, she easily dodged him and ended up behind him, at which point, Tara swung at her. The two vampires fought as Jeremy selected a different weapon and watched them closely for an opportunity. Suddenly, Tara stopped fighting Abby and made herself a shield for the creature. " I know how you feel about my daughter, and I don't think you'll kill the only real friend that she has in this world."

"I'll do whatever it takes to keep Bonnie safe," Jeremy said and glanced around the room with his eyes only. If he were to fire at the right spot, the trajectory would end Abby and Tara would be unharmed. If he could not find such a spot, Tara knew her risk when she hopped on the bike.

"Abby would never hurt Bonnie," Jamie said and Jeremy, who until that point had not seen him there, threw a glance his way. He was about to get onto him for not telling Bonnie that he was here with Abby, and other things, but his short glance was long enough for Abby to advance on him and to struggle his weapon out of his hand.

She smiled into his face as she turned the weapon on him and dared to fire it into him several times. Jeremy bled from the mouth and fell limp to the ground. Jamie took a deep swallow and looked in horror as Abby moved to steal the ring off of his finger. But, when she did, her hand was violently flung from his finger. "Abby, what are you doing?"

"If I leave this ring on him, he'll only wake up from this attack. I need him dead, otherwise he'll keep coming after me," she said, trying a spell to break past the barrier keeping her from removing his ring.

"He said that he's just here to keep Bonnie safe. Why didn't you just explain to him that you won't hurt her?" Jamie asked, looking at the dead Gilbert with regret that he had done nothing to help and the despair that he could not have, if he even tried.

"To him, killing me is what keeps Bonnie safe, Jamie." She folded her arms, then said, "Go fetch an axe."

"An axe? Are you going to chop him up?" Jamie was shocked and appalled.

"You are going to cut off his hand," she corrected. "An axe, now." Jamie covered his face with both hands in shame and fear, but followed the order. He went to search for an axe, having no idea where he might search. He thought that there was some type of shed out back.

On the way there, he passed bodies with hearts ripped or knocked out of their chests and those which were decapitated. It was a violent, disgusting mess and he could only make it down one hallway before hunching over and vomiting profusely on the floor. There was no way. There was no way that he could return to that place and he certainly couldn't let Jeremy be killed like that. Even though he had taken down quite a few supernaturals, Jamie was relatively sure that they were evil. He opened his phone and called Bonnie back, his throat still sore from the sickness inside of him. "Bonnie, Abby has Jeremy and the vampire."

"I'm already in route. After we hung up, I went looking for them and saw that they were not where they told me they weren't going. I knew that meant they were heading that way." She blinked and squinted in confusion, "The way that you said that sounded like you didn't just talk to her..."

"I'm here, Bonnie. I'm at her house. Your friends came through and killed a bunch of her supernaturals, and some ran, but plenty of them are still here. I don't know what to do. She killed Jeremy and now she wants me to find an axe, so she can cut off his hand." He took a deep breath as he struggled to keep from regurgitating again.

"I am pulling in, right now," Bonnie said.

"I don't think that I could stand to go back in there..." She heard him grunt and she quickly got out of the car and rushed to try to look for him. When she saw him, he was laying on the ground, covered in blood, and Tara was standing over him, with her hand just as bloody as his body.

"Tara!" Bonnie cried and rushed to check on Jamie. A hole had been punched through his belly and his eyes were glazed over. Bonnie cried as she looked at him, then looked up at Tara. Tara began to come closer to her, but Bonnie lifted one hand to quickly and easily bring Tara's body down to the ground. When the vampire fell, Bonnie angrily marched into the house, dropping every single enemy that attempted to come her way, until she saw Abby, with Jeremy laying his head on her lap, blood coming from his mouth.

"Hi, Bonnie. Jamie told me that you wanted to see me."

"Then you turned right around and had him killed."

"That's his punishment for trying to betray me."

"You are..."

"He's going to be by my side, forever. He just didn't know that," Abby said.

"You're turning him into a vampire."

"Let's be realistic. At this point, turning him into a vampire is the only thing that is going to keep him safe." Abby lifted a hand and a rush of winds came through the room, cold against Bonnie's face and they shut the door behind her. "What would you like to talk about?" Abby asked, coolly.


	5. Pledge of Allegiance

**Pledge of Allegiance**

Bonnie studied the woman for a time. She knew that if she tried one of the supernatural attacks, Abby might be resistant because of her witch properties. Therefore, why risk being attacked by her in some way? She focused on Jeremy and wondered how much longer before he revived by the power of the ring. Just last night, she allowed him to hold her for the first time in years. He told her, "Just allow me to, this one time. I may never see you again. Even if I don't get a chance to kill Abby, she may kill me first." Bonnie's bottom lip was tight against her mouth and curving slightly to the side, as it sometimes did. She fought off letting it quiver in front of her mother.

"Are you trying to come up with a game plan?" Abby asked.

"I am just here to help," Bonnie said. "I wish that you would let me help you."

"You called Jamie to try to contact me, but in the meantime, Jeremy was on his way to kill me with that self-loathing vampire hater. Are you trying to tell me that you had no idea that he was coming after me?" Abby asked, highly offended.

"I. Had. No. Idea." Bonnie said. She took a deep breath and said, "I was told that you're trying to awaken Klause. Why would you do that? Don't you know that he'll come after me for locking him away?"

"He'll never get the chance. Did you see all of the carnage out there? All of those hybrids and vampires pledge their allegiance to me. I have power over them. Klause won't stand a chance."

"Abby... The moment Klause comes back, he'll use his sire bond to take back full control of all of his hybrids. He's had over a thousand years to get things over on witches and anyone else. He'll get over on you, too and you will regret ever trying to go against him. Right now, he's in a good place." Abby ripped Jeremy's shirt open and revealed the holes in his body. Bonnie could not keep herself from stepping forward and balling her fists.

"Bonnie, I think that you and I have nothing to say to each other until you deliver Klause to me. Until then, if this little slayer even looks like he's going to wake up, I'll reopen every wound here." Bonnie opened her mouth to refute, but Abby tore one of the holes open wider and Bonnie shut her mouth. "You can even collect your useless vampire friend. She should be waking up and wondering what the hell happened."

The door flung open and Bonnie was shoved out by a violent wind and the door shut on her. She collected herself and glared at the door. There was no way that she would hand Klause over to Abby. It was bad enough that she had to force Klause into Tyler's body when she knew that Alaric was out to kill him. She betrayed Caroline and hurt Tyler. They were her friends and she just wanted to protect them from evil. Instead, she lost them.

All of the mess that Elena had gotten them into, but it was Bonnie who ended up losing every friendship that she had. She was _not _going to lose the only person who supported her! "Damn you, Abby!" She snapped and lifted both of her arms at the door as she chanted a certain spell. Now, winds twirled around her and blasted the door off of the hinges. She came into the room and went for the brain attack.

Abby dropped Jeremy to the floor as she held her head in pain, like that would actually help her. Bonnie rushed to him, but Abby groaned as she fought through the pain and lifted her own hands to challenge her daughter. Bonnie flung winds to knock Abby back, now and she lifted Jeremy on her shoulder. If she could just keep Abby off of her long enough to get him out...

Before Bonnie could get to the door, she saw them. "Oh. My. Gaia." She said, or did she think it? Either way; what the hell? Bonnie saw several dead bodies coming for her – bodies that should not have been able to move, because they were demolished hybrids... but Abby was now a necromancer. Bonnie turned to face them and tried to work her magic against them, but then she felt herself being strangled. She moved to try to get away from her assailant, and she heard him say, "Bonnie."

"Jeremy!" She choked. He held her with his forearm, choking her with the length of it as Abby recovered from her attack.

"I CONTROL the dead, Bonnie. You should've seen this one coming," Abby said and held her hand out to Jeremy. He dropped Bonnie and returned to Abby. Bonnie coughed and lifted her hand to the oncoming hybrid zombies, or whatever the hell they were. How do you defeat zombies? She glanced around – a candle! In a snap, the flames grew, across the entire room and she pushed them over the incoming troops.

Abby worked on fighting the flames. She tried to make them encircle Bonnie. With tears in her eyes, she cried, "I'm sorry, Bonnie. I never wanted to hurt you." As the flames encircled Bonnie, Bonnie created winds around herself, enough to keep the fire away. She began to chant and summon the power of other witches.

"No, _I'm _sorry, Abby. I never wanted to hurt _you._" Tears flooded her eyes as she sent Abby's body flying through the room and into the wall. Then, through the winds, through the flames, she attacked Abby's brain once more. Jeremy fell to the floor again, and the flames that circled Bonnie died down. However, she allowed the flames of the zombies to continue burning them. She did not need them to awaken again.

When she was confident in that, she picked Jeremy up on her shoulder again, but soon, Tara came in, shaken and covered in blood, with tears in her eyes. "Bonnie... I..." She shook her head.

Bonnie cut her off. "I can't kill Abby. Even after all of this. Just," her eyes shut tightly as she hoisted Jeremy's dead weight on her shoulder and shifted to try to move him, "Make it quick."

Jeremy jumped up with a start and touched his chest and stomach. He looked around the room, saw Tara, laying in bed next to him, on her stomach, and turned to see Bonnie sitting in a nearby chair with red, puffy eyes. Quickly he went to her and collected her in his arms. All of the day's stress got to her and she collapsed onto his chest. "Bonnie, I am so sorry. I am so, so sorry," He whispered as he rubbed her back.

"I don't think I could have helped her if I wanted to," she cried. "But, after everything, I didn't want to. She's my mom and I didn't even want to help her." She looked up into Jeremy's eyes and asked, "What kind of a person...?" But he didn't let her finish. Instead, he caught her lips in a kiss and would not release them.

But, Bonnie pulled away from him and took his spot on the bed. "When you see Alaric, tell him that it didn't happen. I choked and by the time Tara went to finish the job, Abby had gotten away. She's probably regrouping right now, and lucky for us, not only can she control the dead and the undead, but apparently also the dead undead."

"Wait, what?" Jeremy asked. "Like, if a vampire dies, she can still reanimate it?" The look of horror on his face was different than any face he had made in the past few years. He didn't actually scare easy,but the thought of enemies who would just keep coming back...

Tara commented, "The bitch put every last supernatural we slayed on the way in after Bonnie." Jeremy sighed, but Tara suggested, "It's morning, now. Yesterday and last night seemed endless. We need to get some rest and think of what we're gonna do after we've done that."

"Bonnie, take a walk with me?" Jeremy asked. Tara rolled over on her back and fell to sleep.

"I tried so hard to fight her. I couldn't control myself," he said.

"I know, Jeremy. I understood what was happening. You hadn't even come back to life, at that point. You were a tool to her, like all of them." She wiped her eyes and said, "Nothing is sacred to her anymore. She hates everything, everyone. She had Tara to kill Jamie." Jeremy tried not to wince at the fact that Bonnie's voice broke and shook when she said that name. "But, she obviously had him drink her blood before, so now he gets to be a vampire." She shook her head and rung her hands, "Do I even deserve to be a servant of nature?"

Now, Jeremy stopped her from walking and put his hands on her shoulders as he looked into her eyes, "Of course, you do. No one has been more faithful to nature than you have."

"You seem to be forgetting my life in Mystic Falls," Bonnie said.

"You seem to be forgetting that if it wasn't for your life in Mystic Falls, most of us would have died. I did die,"

"And I betrayed nature to bring you back," she commented. "Then, when Esther had a way to kill all of the originals and kill all of the vampires, I betrayed nature again, by breaking it so that Klause wouldn't harm you. Then, there was what I did to Tyler," she backed away from his hold and continued walking, "How is the coven?"

"They miss us," he said. "Stefan and Damon pretend to still be pissed at you for everything, but Caroline and Elena forgave you a long time ago. Tyler... will take more time."

"I loved them," she said. "I'm glad that they're still surviving."

"Of course True Blood is the best thing that ever happened to Stefan. Caroline and Elena appreciate not having to steal from blood banks."

"I take it Damon refuses to change," Bonnie said with a bemused expression.

"Tyler says that everyone has pretty much changed. They're 'like family' or some other such crap," Jeremy spat out.

"They are family. They all come from the same vampire bloodline, and if anything happens to Klause, they'll all die." She took a deep breath.

"You did the right thing by hiding him," Jeremy said as he took her hand and guided her into his RV. She stepped inside and immediately fell onto his little bed. Tara was right. She needed rest.

"I still can't figure out who my allegiance is to. When I had Klause in Tyler's body and I was living for myself, tired of always getting the rotten deal, it seemed so simple. I worked with Esther to bring back Alaric, because I really believed that the vampire problem was the problem. Then, I met Tara and I realized how far the arms of the originals stretched out, that they touched vampires all over the world and many of them were simply victims of their own nature, or lack thereof."

Jeremy moved to take her shoes off of her feet for her and she silently thanked him, though his actions barely registered to her mind. She continued talking, "I remember thinking to myself that if she really wanted to die, I should let her. But, then I saw how Kol taunted her and tried to torture her... just like he would any_ human_ that he thought beneath him. My rage fueled up, and we squared off. I," she became frustrated that her eyes were damp again. "I couldn't let him destroy her like that." She sat up and looked at Jeremy, who was still stooping next to the bed, "Did I ever tell you about this?"

"No. You never tell me about anything that isn't work related. We don't talk anymore," he said sadly.

She patted the bed next to her and said, "Come here. Let me talk you to sleep."

"I don't think I'll be able to sleep with you telling me about your adventures," Jeremy commented.

"Then let me talk until I fall to sleep," she suggested as he sat down next to her.


	6. The Klause Situation

**The Klause Situation**

"I looked over to see you staring at me again. Since that day in the woods when I had to stop your heart to bind Klause, you had been staring more frequently than usual. Of course, I was ignoring you, because of everything that had already happened. I knew that you missed me, and trust me, I missed you too – but like I said, I was just so _sick _of being the local whipping girl. I'm a witch – one that put my life on the line, repeatedly. Call it bitter, call it selfish, but I wasn't going to be bullied into servantude by the likes of anybody else, again!"

_Bonnie retreated into the memories – watching them happen again..._

Jeremy kept staring at her, curiously, until she finally collected her books and moved along. The boy followed her. "Bonnie..." She turned quickly and lifted her hand, as though she might perform some type of offensive spell on him. There was a glare in her eyes and he hardly recognized her expression. "I just wanted to see how you're doing. I mean, the only person as torn up about what happened to Elena as me is probably you."

She sighed and pulled her books close to her chest. "Jeremy, we lost Elena long before Meredith accidentally turned her into a vampire." She turned on the balls of her feet and began to leave, but he still followed, so she continued to talk, "And even though she's heartbroken now, she'll get over it and soon enough, she'll be happy being with the Salvatore brothers for the rest of all eternity." Jeremy's jaws clenched at the mention of them, but Bonnie seemed to be in a zone and he didn't want to interrupt.

"From the moment she laid eyes on Stefan, she was gone – we just didn't know it yet. And now that we do, I for one am relieved about the ability to wash my hands of all of them."

"Is that why you won't make her a ring?"

"I won't make her a ring because there are enough vampires able to walk around in the sunlight. That's a punishment from nature. I was wrong to make one for Caroline. But, now... I know where I stand, and it isn't with vampires." Jeremy took a deep breath, "Sorry if that isn't what you want to hear."

"No, that's not it. I don't like them any more than you do, especially the Salvatores. But, now – Elena's connected to them in a way that we'll never be able to connect with her. I didn't really have any friends before all of this started, but Elena did. You did. Now, all of your friends have been cursed, except for Matt."

"There's still time," Bonnie commented as she saw Matt with Caroline and Stefan. "I really love them. I always will. But, things are better without them. We're about to graduate. I have a few things to finish up here, then – we'll never have to see each other again." Bonnie took a step and almost walked right into Tyler. She gasped when she saw him and Jeremy noticed and watched him suspiciously. "So, I'll see you later, Jeremy," Bonnie said and began to walk away from him.

Jeremy moved forward to follow her again, but Tyler cut him off, "How about you just give her some space, Jer." Tyler patted him on the shoulder.

"Can she _see_ you?" Jeremy asked, confused about Tyler's being present and Bonnie's reaction.

Tyler smiled and said, "She can't... but she knows that someone's there." He then went to catch up with Bonnie. Jeremy watched the two of them. Bonnie seemed agitated with Tyler's presence and Tyler seemed... menacing. This didn't make any sense. She could see Tyler, if he was correct – she was talking to him. Either that, or trying some type of spell to rid herself of his presence, but why would Tyler even be haunting her?

Jeremy moved towards them once again, but was met with Alaric's voice, "He's right, Jeremy. There's something wrong going on here. You should just leave Bonnie alone." The boy looked at the ghost and shook his head, but Alaric said, "There is something going on with her. She's changing and not for the good. There are evil spirits contesting to be close with her."

"That means that I _shouldn't _leave her alone. I can sense them. I've seen things around her – they don't even look like ghosts. They're more like shadows or something. Bonnie has saved my life repeatedly. I'm not going to let anything happen to her. And what the hell is this with Tyler?" He asked and folded his arms as he watched Tyler stroke a hand across Bonnie's face, then leave her standing alone, with damp eyes.

Alaric said, "The only thing that I can say with honesty is that I don't think that was a ghost... and to be honest, I don't even think that it was Tyler." Jeremy frowned and took a deep breath as he watched Bonnie try to recover, alone. Bonnie seemed to feel his eyes on her. She looked at him, rolled her eyes, then left.

Bonnie rummaged through all of the books that she had gotten from the Martins. She recently began making her own grimoire, but her collection was such a great source of magic that she studied it over and over. But, now she was looking for something. Klause was bothering the hell out of her. She needed him out of Tyler's body, but out of her friends' hair, at the same time. Even though she kept her distance from them, she still cared about them.

Besides, she and Caroline were still close and it hurt her to know that she was a part of a conspiracy that victimized Caroline's relationship. Unfortunately, she could not be honest with the group. They already thought that perhaps Klause had not been the original of their makers' bloodlines. If they knew that Klause was inside of Tyler's body, she firmly believed that the Salvatores would kill him without a second though, and of course Elena would forgive them and Caroline would be heartbroken, while Tyler would be dead. "Damn it!" She hissed when she cut her finger on one of the grimoires.

Then she noticed it. She had never seen this one before and was a little shocked that she had not, because right in the center of it was a familiar symbol – the very same pendant that Esther wore on her necklace. Bonnie took a deep breath and reached for it, carefully. She studied the outside of it and wondered what could have cut her on it. No need in repeating the same mistake.

When she found nothing dangerous on it, she took it to her desk and opened it. As soon as she did. She felt tremendous power surge through the room. Her eyes looked around and she whispered, "Esther?" She took a deep swallow, but heard the voices of several witches and saw a pool of blood form in the middle of the page she had opened the book to. She reached out and placed her finger on it.

Immediately, she began to see flashes of wars and massacres between the werewolves and the originals, from the time period that the originals were created. She began to see the deaths of all of the people that the vampires were killing and she saw Esther's death, Emily Bennett's death, her Gram's death, Abby's death, deaths of witches all over the world, many at the hands of vampires, others at the hands of other humans... "Stop, please!" She cried out. The images continued and became unbearable. Bonnie screamed at the top of her lungs in pain.

"That is why nature should not be opposed," an unfamiliar voice said to her. She looked up, crying, and saw Ayanna. She had only recognized her from flashes of dreams. But, now – she seemed to be in the room with her, still dressed as she had been in her time. "I mentored Esther. I helped her hone her skills."

"You feel responsible for the vampires," Bonnie said.

"It is a terrible burden. I can't force you to take it upon yourself. I wanted you to know how I have felt as I have watched what Esther's children have done." The witch said, "I always meant for a member of my bloodline to find my grimoire. Only one of you would have been able to see what I have seen, to feel what I have felt. My blood binds my power to this book," she said. "You can use it to destroy them."

Bonnie sobbed and asked, "What about Caroline? Tyler? Innocents that have been transformed against their will?" She shook her head and looked intensely at the woman as she asked, "What about Abby?"

"As unfortunate and painful as it is, all of the people that you knew, with those names have been killed already, by the vampires who changed them. They continue existing, but they are gone, as you know them. Their every moment is a struggle to try not to be a monster, because they can remember a time before they were. You would be freeing them," Ayanna said.

"I... I just want things to be better, for everyone." She said.

"It can't be. Unfortunately, when nature has been unbalanced, her children are at war, and someone _has _to lose," Ayanna said.

"Klause has to be stopped. I never intended on him being able to keep Tyler's body, but by the time I tried to put him elsewhere, he had so much control of Tyler's body that I didn't want to risk Tyler's life to get him down." Bonnie said, "Tyler's supposed to be dead. They all think it. But Klause wants to get revenge. He thinks that he can use me to do it. I won't give him the satisfaction. I've lost too much."

"Bonnie, if you want to stop him, you will need my power," Ayanna said. "But if you use my power, I will expect you to be a servant of nature, not of your desires."

Bonnie nodded her head, "I understand and I will give up anything to stop him."

When Bonnie heard the rustling in the bushes outside, she automatically said a spell and heard a grunt from Jeremy. "Jeremy?" She questioned. He came out of the bush with an angry scowl. "Why do you look like that? _I'm _the one that should be angry! What are you doing?"

"I have been watching you every since that visit from Tyler yesterday. Remember Tyler? The one who _died? _He used to be a friend, until he died when Klause was killed... Oh... wait. Klause wasn't killed! You..." He clenched his fists as he approached her window, "You saved Klause and _let _him take Tyler's body? You did to him what Klause did to Alaric?" She clenched her teeth tightly. "Bonnie, I know that you wouldn't do anything to help Klause without being forced. I know that you wouldn't hurt Tyler and Caroline without good reason. I'm just confused. Help me to understand it."

"It isn't for you to understand. It's none of your business," she said. "Stop stalking me."

"I can't." He said. He'd meant to say _"I'm not,"_ but, he continued, "If I stop, something might hurt you. Can't you sense the evil that's following you around?" He was close enough to reach out and touch her, but decided against it. "Bonnie, something's after you. I'm worried about you."

She forced a smile and said, "Come inside, Jeremy." She moved away from the window to go to the front door, and Jeremy made his way, but Alaric stopped in front of him.

"Jeremy...I don't think this is a good idea," he said. "We have no way of telling if she's herself or if the darkness has gotten to her."

"It's Bonnie. I would know. I would always know," he said and continued into the house. "Stay out," he told Alaric.

Bonnie shared everything that happened with Jeremy and why she made the choice she made. Jeremy listened and when she stopped and held her hands out, he said, "You are the bravest person that I know." He came over to sit next to her and asked, "What do I need to do to help you? You can't do all of this alone."

"I can and will. I have to, Jeremy. My ancestors depend on me. All of the witches on the other side are counting on me to fix this thing."

"This is Esther's mess," Jeremy said. "Why not talk to Esther? After all, she was the one who started it."

"I have everything that I need," Bonnie said.

"You don't have any friends," Jeremy told her.

"I..." She looked at her hands, sighed and confessed, "I don't need any," she said and gave him a stern nod. She got up and walked away a little. The close proximity of him made things hard, sometimes.

"Well, I do!" Jeremy urged. He walked closer to her and whispered, "Bonnie, you are the only person still in my life that makes any sense. Tell me what you plan to do and let me help you."

She sighed and looked into his eyes. How did they still make her feel so weak? Wasn't she over this guy, by now? "I am going to summon Alaric back into the vampire body. Esther did a preservation spell, similar to the one my ancestor Ayana did to her, before he was ever killed." Jeremy gasped and Alaric was suddenly right next to him, with a shocked expression and folded arms as Bonnie kept talking. "Alaric is the key. He was the one that Esther chose to do this work of hers. I am going to bring him back so that he can fix her mess, just as she made him to, but this time – I won't tire his life to a human's life. I'm just going to make him a vampire. If he should decide that he wants to die, he'll have a choice."

"No, no, no! My choice is not to come back!" Alaric said forcefully, though Bonnie couldn't hear him.

"That's not what Alaric wants," Jeremy told Bonnie.

"I'm sorry, Jeremy. But, Alaric's already in this mess. He's my best option. Tell him that there's no one else that we can depend on to do it."

"

I'll do it," Jeremy offered.

"Jeremy, you aren't strong enough or skilled enough to efface the vampires."

"Turn me into one. I'll do whatever it is that you would have Alaric do."

"No, Jeremy," Alaric said, but it was pointless.

Bonnie said, "Absolutely not. Look – this is what I am doing – I am doing basically what I did for you, but this time, for Alaric. Ayana says that the witches will let me use their power because of the work that Alaric is going to do. It will help _fix _the mess that Esther created."

"Bonnie -"

"I _felt _all of the pain, the suffering, the death and acrnage that the vampires have caused since their creation. I can't let it continue. I have to make a choice and I've chosen Alaric."

"What if he refuses?"

"He won't. He still believes in the cause," Bonnie answered. "If he didn't the witches would never let him come back from the other side." She went into the kitchen and called out, "Need anything?"

"No," he said, softly.

She returned with a bottle of vegetable juice and said, "After I have him back, I'm going to remove Klause from Tyler's body and place him inside of another vessel."

"What about the other person?" Jeremy asked.

"I didn't say person. I said vessel," she corrected. She pulled a photograph out of her bag and set it on the table. "Klause's horse."

"Wait... is that even safe for the horse?" he asked.

"Yes," she said, "and safe for the rest of us." She gave him a sad smile, "Except for maybe me, but it wouldn't be the first time I put myself on the line, and at least this time it's for a world view, for nature itself." She took a sip of her drink. "With Ayana's grimoire, nothing can go wrong, as far as the spells, but I imagine that Damon and Stefan will try to kill me if they find out and the originals might come after me, as well."

"But, by then. Alaric and I will be there," Jeremy said.

She chuckled, "Alaric may want to kill me, too."

Jeremy shook his head and told her, "That won't happen. I'm not going to let anything happen to you."


	7. When Tara Came to Town

**When Tara Came to Town**

Of course, the plan was simpler in theory than in application. She expected that much. She expected Tyler to be pissed that she had used his body to harbor Klause. She expected Caroline to be heartbroken that she had saw her through mourning over his loss, knowing all the while that he wasn't dead and that Klause was inside of him. She even expected Elena and her Salvatore flunkies to have nasty things to say about it...

Damon grabbed her by the throat and lifted her into the sky, "I should kill you, witch!" She lifted her hand to mentally attack him, but before she had the chance to, Damon was violently flung across the house. Alaric. Damon's eyes widened at the sight of him, then he smirked at Bonnie and said, "You really never know when to quit with the magic tricks, do you, Judgy?"

Alaric glared at him and spun his indestructible stake between his fingers. "No, Alaric. Not him. Neither of the Salvatores, or any friends of Elena," she said, calmly – but she did not sound quite like herself.

"Esther?" Damon asked.

Bonnie pursed her lips at him and said, "Bonnie Bennett. I know that name is hard for you to remember, because I've never meant anything to you, but a quick and easy way for you out of a jam at my own expense. The only reason that you've been spared is because of Elena. If any vampire deserves to die, you do, and I'm sure one day, someone will make you taste the one thing that you've so selfishly and carelessly handed out all of this time. But it's not going to be tonight. My suggestion to you is to stay the hell away from me and stay out of Alaric's way."

Alaric clenched the stake in his fist and bared his fangs at Damon, "Bonnie, you said it yourself. He _deserves_ to die. Nature wants him on the other side." She just placed a hand on Alaric's shoulder and pulled gently on him. He pointed at Damon and said, "What happened last time will never happen again. You and the others better not come near Bonnie." He escorted Bonnie away, with his hand in the small of her back. He whispered, "You should've let me do it. He isn't your friend, Bonnie. He never was. Now, noen of them are." And that was the day that she really lost her friends. None of them came near her, after the fact, though she had a feeling that they were probably plotting.

Tara Thornton lurked around at night, but was not about during the day. Bonnie was at the Mystic Grill when she first noticed her. Jeremy was working late with Matt, and Bonnie was hanging out, going over her ancestor's grimoire when the dark skin woman walked in, wearing a worn leather jacket and nice fitting jeans. She came to the bar and sat down, "Can I get a vodka tonic, please?" She asked, in the most country accent that Bonnie had ever heard. Bonnie looked up at her and immediately noticed that something was off about her. It was almost like Bonnie was developing the ability to sense them, because her mind automatically said, 'vampire,' without any provocation.

The older woman turned suddenly and eyed her, suspiciously. "You got a problem?" She asked, glanced at the book under Bonnie's hands and frowned at her.

"I have several," Bonnie answered, evenly. "Try not to become one of them, please."

"Try not to stare," Tara said as the bartender handed her the drink, "Witch," she said to punctuate the statement. She pulled a few bills out of her pocket, then clenched her head for a moment, before rushing over to snatch Bonnie up by the collar, with her fangs glaring.

"Thought so," Bonnie said, coolly. Alaric snatched Tara off of Bonnie and shoved her away. He reached for his stake.

Tara glanced at the weapon, at Bonnie and whispered, in fright, "Necromancer," before making the dash. Alaric went after her, but Tara disappeared quickly. When he came back into the bar, Jeremy was standing next to Bonnie, checking on her, with his hand on her arm.

"Who was she?" Alaric asked.

Bonnie shook her head and said, "I don't know. A better question is what she's doing in Mystic Falls?"

Tara was following leads. She withdrew as much information as she could around Bon Temps to see if she could find out something about the authority. Things were falling apart in the vampire community, thanks to the Necromancer witch, Marnie's assaults against them. Unfortunately, that was precisely when Pam decided to turn her into a vampire, and God, she _hated _it. Being subjected to Pam, even feeling love and lust for her... She never thought that she would ever see the day. Her travels led her to this place – Mystic Falls. She was trying to find a vampire named Kol.

Supposedly, if she could find a way to take down Kol, she could take down Eric Northman and Pam, as well. Sure, she would have to die, but she should have been dead, anyway. She was supposed to die when that raging bitch Debbie shot her! "Well, well, well..." she heard a voice say softly from behind her. "If it isn't dregs from my cup," he said. Tara had no idea, at the time, what that even was supposed to mean. She simply studied the vampire. He was old, powerful. She stared at him as his eyes drifted over her. "Why are you so tattered?" He asked and stroked his hands down her jacket, eyeing it with utter contempt.

"Excuse me," she said and tried to move past him, but his hold on her tightened. He smirked at her, but she could tell it wasn't affectionate.

"You have a place to stay?" He asked. He made her skin crawl. He had an English accent and curly hair – and though they looked _nothing _alike, the first person who came to mind when she looked at him was Franklin.

"Yes," she said and moved gently.

"Where?" he wondered.

"Staying with a cute little witch with pretty eyes," Tara lied and took a giant step back.

"You're an ally of the Bennett witch," he said, now studying her curiously. He circled her, taking everything about her in. Bonnie Bennett had become an enemy of every existing vampire in the world, even those who once considered her a friend. Either this vampire was a traitor, about to be shredded apart, or she was a liar... about to be shredded apart. "What is your name?"

"My name is my business," she said and finally tried to storm away from him, but he was in front of her before she had the chance to even prep her step to run.

"I can see that being nice to you is no way to behave. Pardon my mistake. I won't make it again," Kol said and threw her over his shoulders before dashing off with her.

His speed alarmed Tara. Even though she had super speed, hers was nothing like this guy's. "I'm an original," he told her. "My name is Kol Michealson, and some tragic loser who has benefited from the effects of my blood has turned you into a vampire. You are such a disappointment and I don't really think I can abide something like you coming from someone like me." He said as he chained her up by her arms.

"Excuse me? Was that a racist comment?" She asked, angrily.

"Babe, what we are transcends race. Race is a human issue. It was a pureblood comment, perhaps. An original supremacist comment, maybe." He touched her face, "You do have fire; that, I'll give you. Maybe we could work on your legion of flaws and make you worthy of my blood."

"You're Kol." She stated, staring at him. He liked the fact that she knew who he was and was impressed that even though she had heard of him, she was not afraid. "You're the original responsible for this blood in my veins? Well, I don't even want it, so don't think I'm going to be trained into doing anything for you. And I been tortured by a damned vampire before, when I was still human. So this sh*t should be a walk in the f***ing park!" She spat on him and rolled her neck. Kol wiped at the fluid like it was ghastly.

"You will regret challenging me, Dregs," he said.

Bonnie and Alaric walked up to the door of the place that they were summoned to. She knew what it was about. Elijah wanted Klause's body's whereabouts. Bonnie wanted to keep Klause as leverage. "I didn't want you to bring me back, but you did it anyway. I want to kill vampires, but you stop me from doing it – what exactly is my purpose, to you, Bonnie? Am I to be your personal vampire bodyguard?"

He answered, sarcastically, "Yes. It worked out so well for Elena that I just had to have one for myself!" She shook her head and said, "I don't keep you from killing vampires. Alaric, my heart just isn't ready to see the people that I care about have that happen to them."

"You care about Damon and Stefan?" He asked.

"Elena is still trying to get used to being a vampire. I watched it happen to my mom. Caroline explained how she felt when it happened to her." She shook her head, "I just need more time on that," she said.

Kol opened the door for them and smirked at Bonnie. She turned up her nose and raised an eyebrow. She couldn't _stand _his ass. Every time she saw him, she thought about the fact that he befriended Jeremy in order to kill him on command, if Klause so desired. Now, she guessed he was Team Elijah, since no one knew where Klause was. Rebecca was not around, but Bonnie figured that Elijah probably made her leave so that her temper would not ruin the meeting. Upon entering, the first thing that Bonnie noticed was Tara, lying on the floor in a pool of blood. She looked at her, then at Alaric.

"Does that belong to you?" Kol asked. "I apologize. Sometimes, I take people's things without asking."

"No harm done, we don't know a thing about her," Alaric said, tensely holding onto the stake inside of his coat.

"So, a liar it is. I was wondering," Kol said and collected the vampire woman from the floor. "Time for more torture, Dregs. The witch didn't vouch for you."

"Vouch?" Bonnie spoke up. "Did she say that we knew each other?"

"She said that you were sleeping together," he commented. Then chuckled and said, "I meant bunking! She said bunking. It's my mind that goes off to another place."

"What are you going to do to her?" Bonnie asked.

"That isn't your concern. You don't even know her." Kol said and hung Tara up again. Bonnie had a flashback of seeing Damon hanging up in a similar way, coincidentally, in this very room. She grimaced, thinking of how on that night, she gave up the chance to kill all of them in exchange for Jeremy's safety... and Abby's. She watched Kol torture the screaming vampire and she shut her eyes and turned away. "What are you doing here if it has nothing to do with the witch?"

"I wanted to KILL YOU!" Tara finally screeched. "I want you dead, so that everything that has ever been touched by your nasty ass filthy blood dies too!"

Kol folded his arms and shook his head, "You know, self hate really is not acceptable in my bloodline. But, it will be more fun to keep this up, as a punishment, than to kill you straightaway." Bonnie reached out and began to attack Kol's brain. He fell and held his ears. How could she do that to him, an original? She did not have the power...

"I am using the power of Ayana," she told him, and all of her bloodline.

"Stop. It. You..." Alaric rushed upon him with his stake and just as he prepared to kill him, Elijah wrestled with him until he fled back to near Bonnie.

Elijah straightened his clothing and tossed Alaric his weapon, "I did that to prove a point," he said. "Do not make me have to do such a thing, again." He helped Kol up and said, "Untie the stray and give her to Bonnie Bennett." Kol groaned as he let Tara down and pushed her across the floor with his foot.

Alaric folded his arms and looked at Bonnie. Bonnie was staring at Elijah, trying to figure out exactly why he wanted her to come see him. He had wanted her to come alone, but Alaric insisted, even though she was confident that she could handle this alone. "Bonnie, please. Come, have a seat with me."


	8. Pet Witch

**Pet Witch**

Alaric watched them carefully as Bonnie sat with Elijah and began to talk, "If you invited me here to try to get to Klause, you're wasting your time."

"We need each other, Bonnie. After you salvaged Klause, stole your hybrid friend's body to harbor him, helped Klause convince your friends that he was dead, and now, have once again hidden him, you friends want nothing to do with you."

"I don't want anything to do with them, or _you, _for that matter."

"Then, I suppose I should be asking YOU why you are here?" Elijah stated.

"I suppose that I was curious to know what the hell you want, but since all we'll do is talk in circles, I'm going to just leave." Bonnie got up and Elijah forced her back down, which made Alaric rush upon him, but Kol caught Alaric.

"Until you are ready to speak with me like a civilized person, I supposed I'll have to be uncivilized towards you, and yours," he said, glancing at Alaric.

Bonnie woke up in a cellar, with Tara pacing, like a madwoman. "I'm weak and starving," she warned. "If you wanna stay alive, I suggest you try to find a way out of here."

"You haven't bitten me," Bonnie observed, confused and mildly impressed.

"That's not who I am," Tara snapped at her. "I don't just go around biting people and feeding on their blood for no reason. I'm not a goddamned monster. I just have one inside of me. That's why I tried to come after Kol. I found out that he's the start of my bloodline. He's my original maker..." Tara groaned and held on to the wall, "The hunger is even worse when you've sustained injuries. I think that he gave me just enough blood to wake me up. I'm not healing too well. I drink True Blood, I haven't fed, and I'm injured..." She turned and looked at Bonnie, "You need to get us the hell out of here before I drain the life out of you.

"It'll never happen," Bonnie said. When Tara looked like she was taking a step towards her, Bonnie's hand went up and the vampire hit the floor, clutching her hand. "Remember that, next time." Tara held her head as she sat up and leaned against the wall. "I can't pretend that I know what kind of pain you're in, but whatever Elijah and Kol are up to, they need or want both of us, otherwise the spare would be killed."

"So, basically, you're telling me to try to tough it out," Tara said... "Because you don't understand how hard it is to try to endure the pain of this hunger." She stretched her legs and fought to catch her breath. "It's the worse imaginable torture."

Bonnie glanced around and saw a little dish – she supposed for a past prisoner. She used a little spell to slash herself and dropped a little of her blood into it to slide to Tara. The vampire gratefully lapped it up and soon looked a little better. "Thanks. I know that you hated to do that. You hate vampires as much as I do, even though you have one as a pet."

"He isn't my pet," Bonnie said.

"Are you the pet, then? Because I can't see how a witch and a vampire can ever be friends," Tara said.

"Well, they could... unless the vampire messes it all up. Witches are pure beings. Yes, sometimes they go dark, but the entire purpose of the witch's life is to serve nature and nature is supreme. We are the purest of life forms that there are, when we do the right thing."

"Anybody ever tell you that you're a self-righteous bitch?" Tara asked.

"Yeah... And I didn't care when they said it, either. I know who I am. I stand for something. I have goals and my goals are not selfish nor do they harm others. Do you have goals like that, Vampire? Goals to do good and not evil... to fix problems and right wrongs?"

"Tara," Tara told her. "I have a name. I'm more than my condition."

"Condition? Tara, you don't have a _condition. _You are cursed."

Tara leaned back against the wall and observed, "And you have some kind of Messiah complex death wish. Why'd you come here? I know why I'm here. I thought I might be able to kill some vampires. You came for no other reason, it seems than to get yourself tossed into a dungeon."

"Elijah isn't going to hurt me. He's not the type to drag something like that out. He would've ripped my heart out, if he had a desire to kill me. I have something that he wants and he must think that this will help him to get it, or that while I'm in here, he can find out."

"Wonder what he did to your vampire pet," Tara said.

Alaric was not only outnumbered, but overpowered as he fought to keep the stake out of Elijah's grasp. "Alaric, are you aware that the moment that Bonnie Bennett has no need for you, she will kill you?"

"If she wanted to just kill us, you would be dead," Alaric stressed through his teeth and lifted both of his hands, "Look... Bonnie is important. I know that you realize that she is the only way that you will ever be able to get your brother back."

"I also realize that she will never do it. Not unless she has good motivation. I suppose that the Jeremy card has been played too many times. But, you're a new card, aren't you? Or, are you just a plaything to her?"

"I am an associate," Alaric answered.

Kol laughed and said, "It's one-sided! What is it about this witch? She doesn't seem too remarkable. She isn't a doppelganger, so the draw to her isn't supernatural."

"She's the last of the Bennett witches," Alaric said. "You kill that bloodline, and do you know how much magic will be lost from the world? Another witch may be able to do some of the things that she can, but many of the witches' spells must be done with a bloodline member."

"Ah, that makes sense," Kol said, disappointed, "I thought that perhaps she was something that I should treat myself to." When Alaric tried to attack him, Kol restrained the vampire again and asked, "Is it time to kill him, yet?"

Elijah said, "No. Set him free... some place far from here. We'll let Bonnie know that we gave him the chance to relieve himself of her and that he took it." Alaric fought to get free. "See, there is something between the two of you. She's more than just some ward that you aim to protect. I know that your blood is not connected to hers, because she's a witch. She would have to be involved in the darkest of magic to try to attach herself to a vampire birth."

"I just... don't want to lose her," Alaric said.

"Then, convince her to help me," Elijah said. "Because unless you can, she and the vampire in that cellar with her are going to fight to the death." Elijah waved him away and Kol dragged Alaric to the cellar and threw him in.

Bonnie stood up when she saw him. His first action was to rush upon Tara and jack her up, into the wall. "Alaric, stop it!"  
>"She will kill you if she gets hungry enough, and she's close to it!" He insisted. "Elijah is not going to let you go unless you agree to help him. I kill her and the problem goes away."<p>

"You kill her and you'll have a problem with me," Bonnie told him.

"If you're safe..." He said and pulled Tara to himself to drain her, until he felt it – that attack. He dropped Tara's body and fell to the floor. Tara jumped up and bit him, in turn, feeding off of him for some sustenance, now.

"Tara, stop!" Bonnie warned, with her hands prepared to attack. Tara got up with her hands lifted. She looked like she had been nourished enough. Bonnie rushed to Alaric and checked on him, held him in her arms. When he had initially become a vampire, he had used her for his first feed. When she brought him back as one, she had given herself. He knew that took a lot out of her to consciously do, but she believed so much in bringing him back, in his mission and her role in it. She cradled him to her chest and announced, "Elijah, I'm ready to negotiate."

Hell, she couldn't do the world or anyone in it a bit of good from inside of this dungeon, anyway. Maybe, they could still find some way of escape. Maybe, there was a deal to be made with Elijah that she could actually live with.


	9. Signed in Blood

_Sorry that the updates are so stretched out. I'll try not to get so far behind again. I'm actually working on several stories, and I generally update them according to the greatest demand. This one happens to be at the bottom of my list, as far as alerts and reviews go, so while working on the others, I let this one fall by the wayside, a bit. This is the last portion of the back story of how Bonnie and Tara got to be friends/associates and the understanding between Elijah and Bonnie; we'll get back to the Abby in Bon Temps story arch next chapter. Thanks to all those who have read and all that continue to do so, despite my sparse updates._

**9. Signed in Blood**

Bonnie struck up the pact with Elijah – during all of the days of her life, Klause would not be alive, but when she passed, she would leave the place of where she kept his body and the appropriate spell to Elijah, in her will.

In return, Elijah nor Kol would harm any of those who once were closest to her – Jeremy, Elena, Caroline, Matt, Tyler, or Alaric. Damon and Stefan's mother murdering asses were on their own, and Elijah wouldn't have made that deal, even if she had suggested it. Likewise, if Bonnie needed a vampire ally or if Elijah needed a witch ally, they would be that to each other, UNLESS the terms of the assistance went against either of their morals. Through their deal; if any member of the bloodline of the Michealson family killed her, her will would perish with her.

Also, if any of those on Bonnie's safe list came after him, they negated the terms of the deal pertaining to their protection. Bonnie depended on Alaric to give them the message, including the exact words: "Damon and Stefan's mother murdering asses are on their own."

_Kol said, "Well, now that's that... Give me back my new gimp. I'm bored." He snatched Tara by the arm and bit her. _

"_Hey!" Bonnie said and moved forward, but Alaric weakly stopped her. Tara had a strong face on, but Bonnie could see that she was too tired to properly fight for herself and she was in a lot of pain. Kol clawed his hands gently across her chest, opening another stream of her weak blood and the witch lifted her hand towards Kol._

_Kol smiled at her and asked, "Are you breaking the deal, already? Because I would love to tear your pet limb from limb, after I finish with this." When he said "this" he jerked Tara about and broke her neck. She fell to the floor, limp and Bonnie rushed at Kol again, attacking him with all of her might. The original held his head, still laughing at her, as he bled from the nose. "Make it harder, Witch," he taunted._

"_Kol..." Elijah said, then rushed upon Bonnie and embraced her from behind, "will behave. Leave him to me. Take his descendant with you. Consider her a freebie, tonight." He let go of her and quickly picked Kol up and rushed him out of the room._

"_I guess we're letting ourselves out," Bonnie said and looked at Alaric. He was still pretty drained. She frowned and gave him her arm, "I need you strong," she told him and let him drink._

_Jeremy watched Alaric suspiciously. There was something different about how Alaric was behaving around Bonnie, and Jeremy didn't like it. He noticed that Alaric's touches were gentle and caressing... and he even looked at her like she was important to him. Alaric cleaned Tara up for Bonnie, then Bonnie put a containment spell up to keep her in the bed._

_ They still didn't know her well enough to fully trust her, and she had not been included in the deal, simply because Bonnie didn't know what to think of her, yet. Bonnie asked Jeremy to keep an eye on Tara, and she and Alaric went into another room to discuss things. Jeremy glanced at the strange vampire, but went to eavesdrop on his ex and Alaric._

"_I wouldn't have let you, if I knew that you aimed to strike up a deal with him. You do realize that I **am **going to go after him, don't you? Especially after he threw you in that cellar!" Alaric hissed._

"_He gave you your stake back under the good faith that you would stay away from him, at least as long as the contract is set in place, which is the span of my life. With what I've been getting myself into, I'm likely to die soon, anyway."_

"_Yeah, and likely to die sooner, **because** it benefits Elijah for you to die!" Alaric fussed at her._

"_He can't kill me. If I die by his hands or at his command, he loses everything."_

"_If you die, at all, **I **lose everything!" He hissed in a whisper. Jeremy felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. What the hell did Alaric mean by that? When Jeremy peeked into the room, he nearly fell over at the sight of Alaric's lips on Bonnie's lips... From the way that they were engaged, he could tell that this was not the first time those lips came together. Jeremy opened the door the distract them and Bonnie cleared her throat and looked at the floor, while Alaric asked, "Did Tara try to leave?"_

"_No," Jeremy said, staring at Alaric. "I just overheard you guys and I didn't want to be left out of the loop." _

"_There's no loop," Bonnie said. "I made the decision, which was mine to make, to strike up a bargain with Elijah for all of your lives. He and I signed our names in blood." She looked at Alaric and said, "So far, we've been in agreement. Don't start doubting me, now. I know what I'm doing."_

"_You are going to get yourself killed, that's what you're doing," Alaric said and stormed out. Jeremy watched Bonnie, looking heartbroken as she watched Alaric leave. But, she just sighed and looked at Jeremy as though nothing had just happened._

_Instead, Jeremy was the one to ask, "What the hell is going on between the two of you?"_

"_We've had a rough night," Bonnie said._

"_But, you're acting like..."_

"_We've been sleeping together," Bonnie said and lifted an eyebrow, daring him to act like he had the right to question her, then left him standing alone in the room. Jeremy decided that he would storm out, as well. He had waited on them for two days, had an argument with his sister when he asked her if she had something to do with them disappearing, and lamented over not just Bonnie, but Alaric, as well – to find out that they've been doing this, right under his nose? They had also been hiding it and it only came to the surface because of whatever kind of ordeal they had at Elijah's! _

_Jeremy couldn't take or stomach the thought of Bonnie and Alaric together. Had she done this to spite him for cheating on her? If so, it worked. He felt seriously affronted. And why would Alaric do such a thing? Jeremy stopped and took a deep breath. Alaric loved him, and he knew that Jeremy still had some feeling towards Bonnie... He wouldn't have touched her, unless he truly meant it._

_ Bonnie and Tara were getting used to each other, as Bonnie allowed the young vampire to live at her place, with she and Alaric – while her father was out. Tara was never one for many secrets. She'd lived a secret life for a small time, when she first left Bon Temps, but after her return, she had a terrible adventure that ended with her dying and becoming a vampire. Now, what reason did she have for secrecy, when she had already failed at the one thing that she really set out to do. _

_Bonnie had not many cares to give, herself, as far as talking about the past. She spoke about Elena and how the vampires had changed her life. She also spoke of how vampires had affected Jeremy and Alaric – since those were the only two people besides Bonnie that Tara really knew here. "You're not ashamed of patterns, are you?" Tara asked her._

"_What do you mean?" Bonnie wondered._

"_Well, you dated a guy whose first girlfriend was killed by a vampire. His second girlfriend was a vampire and got killed. Now, you're with a guy whose wife got killed by a vampire, and then his ex girlfriend was turned into a vampire and got killed."_

_While Bonnie said, "I'm not with him," Alaric replied, "My wife was turned into a vampire." They both looked at each other. "I'm not with him?" Alaric repeated._

"_Don't take it to heart, Ric. I wasn't convinced," Tara said._

_Bonnie was packing up things from her room as she reiterated, "Alaric and I share a common goal – to stop vampires from destroying lives. My deal with Elijah combined with my association to you, Tara, has given me more insight. Now that I know that the authority exists and they are the avenue which the originals use to carry out their will, I can use that to my advantage." _

"_So, I guess that since this is the place where originals stop to squat that there is no king or queen set up?" Tara wondered._

"_There was one, but she died. So, now the spot is open and I have elected that Elijah grant that position to Alaric," Bonnie said._

"_You want the reigning original of the vampires to give a position of great vampire power to Alaric..." Tara repeated, for confirmation, "The vampire/vampire killer?" She said, pointing at the other vampire in the room._

"_Exactly. That would be the perfect cover for Alaric. He would have authority over all of the vampires in the state, and in the meantime, set out to destroy all of those that should never have been made." Bonnie said, closing another luggage bag and wondering how she would ever get all of this stuff to fit into her car when she left for college in a couple of weeks._

_Tara commented, "It might be a little hard to do if he's in that type of position. With Nan Flanagan gone and Bill Compton rising in the authoritative chain of command, Alaric's true intentions might be found out. He'll be put under the most scrutiny, especially because he has vampire enemies here in town. Those Salvatore brothers sound like some nasty SOBs, if you ask me and I'm sure they'll expose him to every vampire in the area, the moment that they realize the power that he has and the fact that he could use it to finally destroy them."_

"_I know how to handle that," Alaric said. Bonnie tilted her head at him, curiously and he smiled at her and winked, "Trust me, Bon."_

"That's when I made yet another mistake to trust a vampire," Bonnie told Jeremy. "Tara has literally been the only one that I've found actually worthy of real trust."Jeremy sighed and nodded his head. "Don't you ever turn into a vampire, Jer. With Jamie gone, now... you are the only human being that I can trust." She placed a hand on his thigh.

Alaric had made Stefan and Damon sheriffs. They were given power. They made an agreement that none of them would try to kill each other (Alaric included Bonnie in that), but if Alaric found out that either of them went against any of his rulings, they would be destroyed. Because of the deal that Bonnie was willing to make with Elijah for the rest of their friends, Damon and Stefan were receptive to agree to this one with Alaric. That was something that Bonnie simply could not forgive. Of all of the things that he could have done with his power... he gave some of it to _them? _

His insistence - he intended to use them to keep his secrets hidden, and once he was done with his full work, they would be killed too, did not grant Bonnie any peace. Alaric found his deal to be equal to the one that she had with Elijah, but she disagreed and they never held friend status again.

Jeremy spent his senior year training under Alaric, to be as perfect of a human assassin that the vampires would ever have to face. After his graduation, he forfeited the idea of going to school, to hunt vampires full time. His decision granted him the hands on experience to truly become the very best.

He turned to look at Bonnie, lying on his bed, fighting her heavy eyelids. He smiled, slightly and kissed her on the cheek, which caused her eyes to fly open and stare at him a moment. But then, she fell to sleep, comfortable and safe in the room with him.


End file.
